Could We Potentially Cure All Diseases?

I wanted to let you all know that I will no longer be posting Ash Land chapters to the main page. It bothers me seeing the same picture in the slider bar all the time. So I will continue to post chapters they will just be in the My Creations – Stories link at the top. Now on with my random thoughts…

This is a follow up post on an earlier one when I wrote about the future of health care. I cannot remember another time when so many near sifi medical advancements have been introduced.

Although this is not necessarily an article about some new and exciting technology, it does post an interesting question and outlook.

When I read the headline I was shocked and wanted to understand what it meant. Unless you are extremely lucky there is no doubt that cancer has effected your life in some way. Whether it be a loved one, someone you barely know, or maybe you have had you own personal battle with the terrible disease, it has literally touched us all in some way. The article says that cancer deaths have seen severely declining in recent years for a variety of reasons. One of the biggest are prevention and early detection techniques that are available today. Then when you factor in the major decline in smoking that will also have a major impact of this disease in the future. However, I do not think that cancer will go the way of the Dodo. Our environment still has a very large influence on us and always will, so cancer could be almost nonexistent in the future I do not think it will disappear forever. The article does not give any other real hard scientific facts as for the disappearance, I took the article as a very optimistic outlook for the future.

This next article is something that any sifi fan can talk about, but after reading the article I really don’t know what to think about it. I will be honest I didn’t really understand all the logistics and particulars of it, other than this could very well be the birth or nanotechnology.

Again I really don’t understand what they are saying, but they are excited about it and the implications of this technology are limitless. While I am not afraid of the “death by grey goo” scenario I do think this could also be somewhat dangerous. Seeing as this is just the beginning I don’t think we have to worry about that any time soon. What is fun to speculate about is that if this technology is the future and it very well could be, then what does that mean for so many different aspects of our lives. There are tons of stories out there about how these nanobots take over the world and we eventually have to destroy them. Most recently Transcendence with Johnny Depp explores this idea. What I cannot figure out is why everyone thought that movie was terrible. I thought it was ok, nothing great but it was certainly not as bad as everyone made it out to be.

These nanobots could be the beginning of something that could change us forever. I wonder if what we often see in sifi is even possible with this technology. Often times we see these bots able to repair even the most fatal injuries to humans, among so many other things. I do not understand how they could repair a limb that was blown off from a bomb or other trauma. Where would it get the new bone cells, muscle cells, and a variety of other cells that will make up the missing limb. If this were the case I think the nanobots would have to be sort of a mini 3D printer where they could manufacture those cells or something similar so the body could eventually heal the wound. The other school of thought, and again I do not know much about this technology as I will have to do some research on it, is that the bots could act as a replacement in the short term. So they could take the place of that missing limb by interlocking together and forming a hand or arm that would be controlled by the person’s mind much like the original limb. So maybe if you lost an appendage it was gone, but could be replaced by the bots. Or if you had a deep wound from a knife or bullet the bots would be able to patch up and wounded organs or blood vessels by simply bridging the gap for the time being.

This is pretty amazing to think about. If this can be perfected this will be a huge step in the direction of really taking control over our bodies with technology. I wonder if this technology along with the nanobots are the first step we will take to becoming post human. I do not know the direct definition for that word but I think it means that when we take a step away from our biological side and into the mechanical side. Meaning we start becoming more machine than man or organic. I also think another definition for post human, is that we would start to evolve biologically into something other than human, but of the two scenarios I think that we are closer to the first one. As you know nature takes it sweet time changing things.

All these advancements have to make you wonder if in the future we will be able to cure almost all ailments that effect our frail flesh and blood bodies might incur. If that is the case then a whole other can of worms will be opened, the most important dealing with our mortality. How long could we live if every disease or trauma could be cured or all of our cells could be readily repaired and their mutations carried safely outside the body before they were cancerous. Then the other question arises is how long would we want to live? ?

I think that is something that is always overlooked when anyone starts discussing longevity. Believe it or not I think eventually someone could get bored with life. Personally I don’t think I could, there is too much out there to do, to see, to learn, so many ideas to explore that I don’t know if I would ever get tired of life. But I think eventually it could get rather repetitive and that could be a problem. How long would you want to live if you had a choice??